Making the 3D environment for the game.

The birds eye and face on view of my 3D environment for the game.

I started off with the top down angle of the game and i started this by filling the page green to represent the grass in the level.

After this i added the roads into the level by just grey rectangles and adding white lines to represent real roads with these markings on them.

Next i added the clown tent and a few buildings next to the road, the clown tent is obviously where the player is going to go into when the game starts and all of the buildings are there to make the Environment more immersive for the player making them feel like its an actual town.

after this i added a large brown building to act as a kind of factory of sorts and a few more houses to fill up the empty space in the bottom right of the screen to make it more believable as a town. after that i added a car in the middle of the road to add a sense of dread because this indicates the town being empty from people fleeing the killer klowns. 

Next is the face on view which is the view as if you where standing within this city itself, i started this out like the top down view of just a simple green grass colour but added a split just above the centre and filled it blue to represent the sky above.

after this i added a road with the white lines getting smaller and smaller towards the end giving you a sense of depth when viewing the picture as if it is leading off over a hill

Following this i added the clown tent to the side of the view giving you a full view of the thing you will be entering and hopefully returning out of.

After this i added a building to the right of the tent for one of the many houses along the street and made the windows and door broken to emphasise even more to the fact that this once possibly filled town is now completely empty and void of people leaving there house and all there possessions behind them. and with all that done i was complete and satisfied with my work. 

Ideas for the clown game

Plan for mine and Jacks Unreal Engine game

Genre of the game:

The genre of the clown game will definitely be a first person shooter game as we are going to be killing killer clowns, this could mean being killed with any object or gun we can think up of. for example some of the clowns could have foreign objects like baseball bats or some clown related item and be picked up by the player and used against them if the player runs out of ammo for example or just wants to mix up the gun fight game play with something a little more different and unique.

Levels Within the game:

I think the first level of the game will be the player outside at night standing near a, what seems to be, an abandoned circus tent, the player then enters the circus tent to find that its actually bigger on the inside than the outside and is trapped inside. from here the player has to navigate around the twisted circus tent killing anything that comes in his path and trying to survive all of the demented killer clowns chasing after him. i think there will be multiple levels within the game itself as you progress further into the clown tent bringing up different encounters with clowns and even harder to kill bigger boss like clowns maybe at the end of all the levels.

Character Models:

One of the main character models for the game will obviously be a killer clown obviously along with the boss(s) of the game on different levels to the game. at the start of the game there will be weaker/smaller zombies you have to defeat, towards the end increasing in size and strength/health. and different designs for the bosses in the game like a scarier one for the boss gradually leading up to a final boss.

Equipment:

the equipment in the game will consist of a variety of weapons/items to choose from. for example weapons for the clowns themselves in the game and obviously weapons for your character to use on the clowns. We thought of adding in melee weapons for some of the clowns at the start of the game so melee weapons might be added for the extra dynamic of the game, making it easier for the player earlier on in the game and gradually ramp up the difficultly getting towards the end of the level meaning the enemies weapons are going to be a lot more threatening/harmful like getting guns, and then even bigger guns and eventually coming to a mini boss or just a really hard enemy with a huge gun/melee weapon that causes a massive amount of damage making the fight harder for the player to complete the level.

Other equipment could be for example power ups or items to help the player in the level, more than likely a medi-kit for the player to use to regain some health in game just to make sure the game isn't impossible to beat and just hard enough for first time players of the game.

game engines

List of games engines

1. Source Engine

The source engine is the engine used by the game creating company and steam platform creator Valve. the company behind a variety of games such as: Half life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Portal Ect. The source engine is provides the user with the source SDK (Software Development Kit) meaning they could create levels or even models but they could only be used within source games and not actually used to create games of there own. So Source is semi open source providing the user with some tools for game editing and model viewing/shaping but nothing more.

2. Frostbite Engine

Frostbite is a game engine developed by EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE), the creators of the Battlefield series. This games engine is made to create games for: Windows, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox 1. Frostbite is also not an open source software and the rights being owned by EA/Dice meaning that if you wanted to create a game with the frostbite engine you would need to work for EA/Dice themselves. Although they have not ruled out the speculation of releasing mod tools for there game like the source engine. The main aspect of the frostbite engine is the beautiful scenery and enviroment you can create within the engine itself.

3. Unity

Just like the last two game engines this one is again cross platform, meaning games can be made for various consoles, PC's, Web browser games and even phone games. The most popular of the three being mobile games as unity stands out as the monopoly of the phone game engine giant. being the runner up in the Phone game awards hosted by Apple Mac OS X Graphics category just a year after Unitys official commercial launch. Unity has gone through many iterations just like the last two game engines, Unity is now at Unity 5 started from just the standard Unity. Unlike both of the game engines before Unity is completely open source meaning that you can create and publish a game using unity completely for free. And even more unlike most open source engines unity does not take royalties for the game or charge you for publishing one meaning you can make 100% of the profit from your game you made.

4. Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE)

The RAGE engine is an engine developed by Rockstar Games which incorporates different technologies within its own engine like The open source physics system BULLET and Euphoria Character animation engine. Rockstar is the company that owns this game engine and unlike unity and source is not open source meaning you can only use it if you work for Rockstar. The company itself are the creators of such titles as Grand Theft Auto, Man Hunt, Red Dead Redemption Ect. Like most of the others also Rage is made to make games for such platforms as: WIndows, Ps3, Ps4, Xbox 360, Xbox 1, Nintendo Wii. The game engine itself DirectX11 and stereoscopic 3D rendering on the PC platform.

Plan for my game sounds

Recording the sounds

One the first day i will be figuring out what i am going to record, note down everything i need to put into the game and go out and do it. this is maybe the easiest bit the only problem i see is finding the right sound that i want for my game of space invaders. for the shooting of the gun on the main character i guess i could hit a table with my hand or something just for a second and edit it highly and make it crushed and more 8-bit like. for when you destroy an enemy i could try to make a sound of something shattering maybe or a bang on something and edit that like the shooting. i will be recording the sounds with my phone mic (which is 20 hz) meaning that the preferred platform for this would be a mobile device due to the compressed format of the file made by the phone as the audio will be very lossy and crushed without a lot of compression on my end.

Mood

the mood i am going for in my game is a very atmospheric space kind of theme, this means a lot of bleeps and bloops to signify that it takes place in the future and that the technology is far more advanced and complicated than the technology that we have here in the present day. maybe even adding more abstract sounds just to break out of the norm of usual and typical sounds that come with a space invader clone, maybe mixing the formula up by adding in some other qwerky sounds into the game, maybe even adding some sounds that are iconic to me and actually mean something more than just a usual sound brought into a game only to serve one purpose and one purpose only.

background music

The sounds for my game would have to fit with a space invader type theme, like a space type fast paced track running in the background to add atmosphere to the whole game. this music would obviously be stereo to fit the whole theme of the game being stereo. i can make this in Soundation online by mixing some instruments together and making a tune. or i could use some software that i own at my own PC called FL studio which is a professional music making software. the background music will be on a loop, there will also be a challenge of making a minute/two minute long song on a loop without it getting annoying to the player and having them dislike the game because of this reason.

Adding the sounds to the game

The intro beat to my game

The main theme to the game

The begin noise when the game starts

The bullet noise

Summary

Here you can find a video of the sounds actually in the game and the iconography behind some of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-E4r6l5EWM&feature=youtu.be

How i would say i feel after the overall finished piece is happy actually, i originally planned to record the sounds with my iphone and then upload them to my computer but it turns out the mic on my headset (it being a razer kraken) it was actually far better than recording on my phone and allowed me to add just that little bit more professionalism to the finished product. i also was thinking about making the two beats for the game in FL studio but actually turned to soundation as it allowed me to do everything i wanted to do in FL studio but just ten times easier. lastly i planned to edit the sounds in adobe but ended up editting them in audacity which is a little less proffesional but allowed me to do the exact same things i would have ended up doing in adobe anyway.

Black jack game

Blackjack Game

The game i was assigned to create is of course blackjack or pontoon, whatever you want to call it. the game is pretty simple, there are however many players (preferably three) and a card dealer. the aim of the game is to have the highest number of cards, the number represented on the card, without going bust and going over 21 if this is achieved you win and they move onto the next round. 

Now, onto the making of my blackjack game. The first thing i started of making was of course the sprites for everything in the game.

I very first started out by adding all 52 cards to the cards sprite. this was quite easy actually because i used a tool which would cut out sprites in a column like fashion and the picture of cards i got of the internet had already had them in a column way so it was pretty easy to cut them all out automatically without having to do it individually.

after i created the sprites i moved onto making them all into objects, apart from the cards. i also added a controller object with no sprite attached to it. this is neccesary because this object calls upon scripts at the start of the game and doesn't need to be seen within the game itself so it needs to be hidden.

This is what the room looks like while the game is live, this is how far my game has currently gotten at the moment as none of the buttons do anything but the cards are in fact randomly generated as i previously stated i used the scripts in the objects themselves.

This is the code in all of the players on the screen, it calls for the cards sprites and picks a random one then the code under the green text is the actual cards getting drawn in game and where they are placed, meaning each player has different places for there card placement obviously

What is manhunt:
manhunt is a survival horror video game developed by rockstar games and released on ps2 on November 18th 2003. in the game you take control of your character cash who is threw into a game show type of event where he has to make his way through 20 different levels murdering hordes of enemies in any way the player see fit. be it a hammer or even a plastic bag suffocating enemies. this sets the stage pretty much for the entirety of the game.

Legal issues and controversy:
In many countries it was completely banned right of the bat, and when it was originally released, Canada refused to give the game a rating meaning that it could not go on sale in that country. In New Zealand possessing the game was actually a criminal offence

The game also caught flack from a murder in Leicester after a 17 year old boy killed his 14 year old best friend. His friends said that Stefan Pakeerah was obsessed by this game and the murder was heavily  influenced by the game as he killed the boy with a claw hammer just like in the game the main protagonist kills with a hammer.

The victim's mother released a statement saying: "I can't believe that this sort of material is allowed in a society where anarchy is not that far removed. It should not be available and it should not be available to young people." During this many retailers pulled the game of the shelves such as Game and Dixons. Rockstar themselves came in and released there own statement about the matter: "We have always appreciated Dixons as a retail partner, and we fully respect their actions. We are naturally very surprised and disappointed that any retailer would choose to pull any game. We reject any suggestion or association between the tragic events and the sale of Manhunt. Rockstar Games is a leading publisher of interactive entertainment geared towards mature audiences, and markets its games responsibly, targeting advertising and marketing only to adult consumers ages 18 and older."

In Russia they banned the game from being on sale on PC after a young man named Dmitry Vinogradov killed 7 of his co-workers at the pharmacy he worked at. According to friends and family he was a fan of violent video games including Manhunt. Dmitry had no history of violents but according to friends he had been heavily drinking when the attack happened. There was no solid evidence that Manhunt were too blame for the killings but the game was still banned.

In my opinion i think Rockstar milked this game for all it was worth. maybe when they started work on this game they had a vision of making an intensely violent game and attempting to really push the boundaries when it came to art in video games. but once press caught wind of just how violent it actually was they blew it completely out of proportion trying to ward parents away from the game. but any publicity is good publicity when it comes to game sales.

Manhunt 2

while the whole controversy of manhunt 1 was going on Rockstar decided to get working on a sequel to the original. taking no note to the full on tsunami of hate coming from a large amount of parents around the globe. The game surprisingly is very similar to the original with all the blood and gore intact meaning companies like Sony and Microsoft not allowing adult only exclusives meaning Rockstar had to go back and edit out and blur some of the gore and violence in the game to just get it out on the shelves to sell. the game was then given an M rating in america but in England they still refused to give the game a rating but was eventually released as an 18.

Story:

after the story of Daniel Lamb and Leo Kasper. It begins in a mental asylum and after a huge thunderstorm the security systems at this Asylum temporarily go down and the inmates cells are opened. Daniel and Leo are able to escape the Asylum and Daniel takes some medication that is meant to help with Daniels memory of his life before the Asylum. During these events they are pursued by a gang of Bounty Hunters going by the name 'The Project'. Daniels learns he was once a top scientists in a project thats main aim was to make a brain implant that would make triggered assassin who in theory would be activated, carry out the assassination and then be deactivated with no memory of what has just happened, cancelling out the problem of interrogation. After learning more of his past they go to track down Dr Whyte who Daniel believes was a co-worker during the project.
They are captured and awake to find Dr Whyte who explains to Daniel that they had tested the implant on Daniel, it had malfunctioned and he was able to speak to his alter assassin ego. This alter ego turns out to be Leo Kasper. Dr Whyte explains that Leo is dangerous and that he took over Daniels mind before he was admitted into the Aslyum, turning him physcopathic, stemming a rampage in which Daniel killed police officers and his own wife. After capturing him, The Project erased his memory and admitted him to the Asylum whilst they could try and fix the brain implant.
After learning this Daniel enters a hypnotic state in which he will face off against Leo within his mind. He is finally allowed to let go of the guilt of killing his wife and is able to defeat Leo and assert control. After doing so, Daniel awakes in a deserted place, his mind wiped once more, he is holding an envelope explaining that explains his name is David Joiner and his address wishing him the best of luck.

Controversy

On February 23, Jack Thompson tried to have the game banned, saying: "I have been asked by individuals in the United Kingdom to help stop the distribution of Rockstar's hyper-violent video game Manhunt 2. The game will feature stealth, murder and torture. The last version allowed suffocation of victims with plastic bags. The original Manhunt was responsible for the bludgeoning death of a British youth by his friend who obsessively played the game. The killer used a hammer just as in the game he played. On March 10, Thompson said he planned to sue Rockstar in an effort to have both Manhunt2 and GTA 4 banned as "public nuisances".

Later on this debate was settled and Jack Thompson said he will not attempt to sue or make any further threats. Rockstar agreed to dismiss a court case they had against Jack for a previous debate over another one of their games, Bully.

Unit 73: sound for computer games - assignment 1

The Last of us: Main Theme Song https://youtu.be/CEs8t-lZe4M?t=11m40s

The main theme for the 2013 PlayStation 3 The Last of Us, it starts out with a guitar playing which creates a feeling of worry/doubt, it gets louder until around 20 seconds in where it ends. rhere is a lot of discomfort and sorrow with the background instrument, creating a tense atmosphere and making the player feel out of there comfort zone as well and really puts the player in the mind set of a person entering a cold and scary world which is extremely fitting with the game as this is exactly what it is about.

after this the drums kick in and the pace of the song picks up a lot, this sort of makes the track more up lifting and really come to life, making it feel as though you are about to partake a grand journy across the world. the track to me has a very native feel to it with a lot of light instruments used and the pan flutes used in the background giving a sense of being one with the elements which the player is put through various times throughout the games playtime. the song end in a very climatic finish with a heavy beat of the drums and they instruments getting loud for a brief moment and then fading out. this symbolizes to me as though the game is saying to start your adventure with them.

I think that they used multi-track recordings. The reason why I believe that this song was created by multi-track recordings was so that Gustavo Santaolalla could listen to the orchestra separately from his guitar tune to listen to what he is actually playing without getting distracted. In this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejdjcun2Jo4 around 1:10 - 1:30, this is where we see Gustavo Santaolalla conducting his orchestra to play exactly how he wants it be. meaning it would be near impossible for him to do both at the same time.

Halo 2 main theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_cwHnQ7Xsg

Halo 2's approach in its opening is completely different to the last of us' format. it starts off with a a sort of wind chime effect maybe played on the steel drums perhaps or a gong perhaps, it is very reminiscent of the main theme of the game mortal combat giving it a kind of ancient Chinese feel to it but changes very fast into a very low pitched humming from a quire. occasionally throughout the humming with be a brief chime on a hi hat. i believe the opening to this theme fits very well as it kind of gives you a kind of almost mystical feel as if you're about to journy into the unknown which is exactly what you are doing in the game. then you slowly hear the beat of a drum and the electric guitar kicks in giving the theme a whole different vibe and making it into a more rock and up beat track. while the drums and guitar is playing the quire is still performing slight hums here and there giving me reason to believe the track is done using multi-track recording and then the two scores where peiced together to make it into one complete track.

Halo was made for the original Xbox which means the disc they used was a dual-layer DVD disc. Its most likely that they would have compressed the sound files due to the amount of storage on the disc. The sound file they could have used is .WAV.  WAV files can be compressed meaning they can fit they can fit more on and not have to worry about any space limitations when it comes to the actual game fitting onto the disc. the music is more than likely compressed meaning they would be able to fit more onto the disc leading back to my last point i just made about space on the actual disc.